Airlines should be required to have seats that accommodate all body types rather than be permitted to squeeze seats so close that even people of average size cannot sit comfortably. Believe it or not people don't choose to be disabled.
this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2025
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Unpopular Opinion
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Fatty here.
Southwest Airlines in the United States let's you buy an extra seat, and then when you check in at the airport, they will refund the cost of the extra seat provided you are a "person of size."
Being that the center arm rests go up, this makes it significantly more tolerable for both me, and the regular sized person who sits in the row with me.
A lot of the other airlines used to do this as well. Now only Southwest does... For now...
Why is people downvoting an actual unpopular opinion? I meant, you might have your opinion on the subject but the post itself is on point.
It's an inherent flaw in the community concept in its alignment with the up/downvote system. People just droll along, don't look at comm, instance, or user, just title, and maybe text content, and then they hit up if it made them feel good, and down if it made them feel bad. This one particular comm goes against this pattern that basically every other one follows, so it never gets the correct reactions.
Because they're offended 😂
Actual Unpopular Opinion: the core concept of this community is engagement bait for dummies
fat*
Lol exactly - in reality
If you're thinking of this, consider that those who buy clothes in XS have to pay the same amount as the XXL size for that same shirt or pants. Despite the XS garment being a third as much material and stitching.
Once you get above about XXXL, you typically have to pay significantly more to get a shirt that fits correctly in that size.
Not arguing, just food for thought...
The extra material and stitching you are talking about costs less than a US penny for any manufacturing process.
That only works for some clothing. Usually by the time you get to XL the arms or legs aren't proportionately wider, only the body, so the sizing often doesn't really work. If it's numbered sizes, above the regular range there usually is a premium price for + sizes, same as for petite.
Why not both? Bigger seats and weight-based ticket prices!
The ticket should come with a total weight of the passenger and their luggage. If I’m skinny let me bring 70kg bags.
No.
Airlines should be regulated so the seats are larger and accommodate larger people.
And if you managed to fly before airlines were deregulated, then you know that this was once the norm and isn't too much to ask.
You do know that tickets for those nice spacious old timey flights you're dreaming of were upwards of thousands of dollars, adjusted for inflation, even for the cheapest seat on a domestic flight.
There was also far fewer planes, far fewer pilots, far fewer airports (infrastructure in general), and far less advanced technology. Prices fell way before they started cramping seats.
And did you also know that those old timey flights included check through baggage, actual food, rules regarding getting passengers to their destinations and a host of other amenities and important regulations that were thrown in the trash because we trusted corporations to NOT create a plane that requires you to stand up for an entire flight (an actual concept that was considered). And you know how when you search for a flight a few times, the price keeps going up? Conspicuously lacking back then along with paying extra for a seat with a window only to be told an actual window isn't guaranteed. Yeah, there was no Internet, but it's still true.
You can get pretty much all of things today. You just have to pay the same price you did back then, adjusted for inflation.
In the old days every single seat on airplane was basically business/first class. There was no such thing as economy.
Passengers wanted cheaper tickets, so the clas system was introduced to offer cheap economy seats, and now y'all complaining that the seats specifically invented to be as cheap as possible don't offer the same amenities as the expensive ones.
I'm complaining yes but I never asked for this.
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(8 replies)
Airplane manufacturers and airlines should stop maximizing throughput via smaller seats.
Actually, I prefer the tight packing. I wanna get from A to B, and have you seen how expensive tickets are?
They should really be using wide body flying/blended wings so the cabin is more spacious for the same max payload, but that’s a separate matter.
That being said, I think airlines should mix in a few spacier seats, for big/tall people, for a small, markup, and exclude all the business class extras.
Airlines already do this, premium economy. Usually the seats that happen to have more leg room due to the design of the cabin.
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There's already a solution for that. It's called premium economy/business class.
And if you're gonna say "but that's so much more expensive", well guess what's going to happen if you reduce how many pax can fit on an aircraft.
Folks should not down vote him, the cost of flights considering inflation have dropped a ton over the years. Its comodetized and made highly efficient with cramped quarters and more efficient technology. If you want more room to fly old school it simply costs more...
https://www.travelandleisure.com/airlines-airports/history-of-flight-costs
"In 1970, a domestic round-trip flight from New York to Los Angeles cost about $150, which is equivalent to over $1,000 today when adjusted for inflation, while today the same flight averages around $300. "
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(6 replies)
Why punish the fat when being stupid is still free everywhere?
I feel like this is a fairly common opinion. Also, I believe they do have to after some point; not sure how the airline decides though?
Exactly.
And if you're someone who has lost a lot of weight, and lived in the world of a fat person and an average-sized person, you know that very well.
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I'm not sure this is unpopular, even on Lemmy.
Someone else already said that they should stop making the seats tiny.
I'm tall and don't fit in any seat other than an exit row. If there aren't any exit rows should I be forced to pay for the seat in front of me?
I'm sorry you have to deal with that but it's not really a good argument. For one, the airline can still actually sell the seat in front of you.
If a person is so large they physically block 2 seats, then that's an extra seat that can't be occupied at all, so it's not really a fair comparison.
And ultimately, not every mode of transport can reasonably be accommodating to every single possible body type. I know that it sucks for people are stuck being an untypical body type and have to deal with nothing much fitting them,, but what do you suggest the alternative should be ? Spacing seats out more just so the few very tall people can sit everywhere is going to increase ticket prices for everyone, even those who neither need nor want that extra space. It will also increase the number of flights required to move the same number of passengers, and therefore increase the fuel use per passenger and mile flown.
Yeah dude, corporations should be able to do whatever the fuck they want!
/s
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(1 replies)
Really covering new ground with this one...
People will always hate fats more than billionaires.
False comparison. No one mentioned billionaires. Two completely separate topics.
I can draw the tangent. Airline industry executives cut costs to make more profits including decreasing seat sizes and increasing number of seats. If they cared less about profit and went back to sizes decades ago, almost no one would be uncomfortable. They go on to tell us it's about fuel economy and the environment while they fly their private jets.
Now that is a decent argument.
There are no profits to cut on Economy calls seats. You seem to have no clue how airlines actually make their profit. And it's not from economy seats. Those are already sold by airlines for virtually no profit. They make their profits from baggage and service upgrades, higher classes like business, and in the US credit card reward programs.
Making economy seating more spacious WILL lead to higher costs for everyone, because ther is no mentionable margin on the current prices.
Also, cramped aircraft are good for the environment. I'd rather everyone have to be slightly uncomfortable for a few hours than needing to spend 3 times the aircraft and cause 3 times the pollution to transport the exact same number of people, but in more comfortable planes.
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